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Фев 19

CBR thinks about rehabilitation mechanism for private pension funds

KOMMERSANT, 19.02.2015

«Rehabilitation is an absolutely evident stage of further development of the pension market,» Pensionny partner general director Sergei Okolesnov thinks.

The PPF rehabilitation process could be engineered by analogy with the rehabilitation of banks, the process numerously tested by the market since 2008, market participants believe. «By analogy with banks PPFs turn public, get inspected and enter the pension accrual guarantee system, a fund managed by the State Depositary Insurance Agency (DIA),» Okolesnov specified. If one or another private pension fund has problems, it is more logical not to wind it up and transfer funds to the Pension Fund of Russia, but to pull efforts of the DIA and the market to rescue it, he said. «All the more since in case a license of a private pension fund is cancelled, it will be necessary to rescue not only pension accruals, but also provisions piled up as part of private programs,» Okolesnov added.

Pension market participants took an interest in experience of rehabilitating troubled market participants which banks have been buying since 2008. The idea of introducing this mechanism for private pension funds (PPFs) was discussed at a closed meeting between Bank of Russia chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina and CBR first deputy chairman Alexei Simanovsky, one of the meeting’s attendees told business daily Kommersant.

The idea is to compile a bill allowing pension funds which fail to join the pension accrual guarantee system due to incompliance with the regulator’s requirements to merge with PPFs that pass CBR’s inspection.

By law PPFs should turn into joint stock companies and join a relevant guarantee system until the end of 2015. Otherwise their compulsory pension insurance licenses will be revoked, and accruals will be transferred from such funds to the Pension Fund of Russia in early 2016. In case of rehabilitation these funds will go to a rehabilitating fund that might also get government money for rehabilitation, the newspaper pointed out.

To date 65 PPFs turned public and 18 of them joined the accrual guarantee system, Kommersant specified. All in all, 87 PPFs engage in compulsory pension insurance. According to KIT Finance PPF director Anton Shpilev, maybe 10-20 funds would be unable to turn public and pass the Bank of Russia’s inspection on time, and «fast-growing funds will be interested in rehabilitating a PPF if such opportunity turns up».

If the idea gets support, all large market participants could take an interest in it, experts think. «Rehabilitation is an absolutely evident stage of further development of the pension market,» Pensionny partner general director Sergei Okolesnov thinks.

The PPF rehabilitation process could be engineered by analogy with the rehabilitation of banks, the process numerously tested by the market since 2008, market participants believe. «By analogy with banks PPFs turn public, get inspected and enter the pension accrual guarantee system, a fund managed by the State Depositary Insurance Agency (DIA),» Okolesnov specified. If one or another private pension fund has problems, it is more logical not to wind it up and transfer funds to the Pension Fund of Russia, but to pull efforts of the DIA and the market to rescue it, he said. «All the more since in case a license of a private pension fund is cancelled, it will be necessary to rescue not only pension accruals, but also provisions piled up as part of private programs,» Okolesnov added.